How to Fix a Separating Zipper

Wondering if you can sew a zipper? Learn how to fix a separating zipper and save yourself the trouble of sending any more good pants or jackets to the trash.

By Christine Boles
Updated on November 13, 2022
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by AdobeStock/Syda Productions

Wondering if you can sew a zipper? Learn how to fix a separating zipper and save yourself the trouble of sending any more good pants or jackets to the trash.

While looking through MOTHER EARTH NEWS the other day — and being amazed at the variety of information that passes through her pages — I realized that I too have a skill that should be shared. It’s a humble accomplishment, but one that few people seem to know: zipper repair.

Inevitably, it’s the zipper do your favorite pair of pants that pulls apart . . .  and even if you have some sewing skill, you probably dread the thought of replacing the device. (It always seems harder to fit a new closure into an already-put-together opening than it is to make the trousers in the first place.) One option is to sew buttons on the underside of the fly and make buttonholes on the
overlapping flap — but if you like zippers better, don’t, for heaven’s sake, banish the garment to the ragbag. The damaged fastener may well be fixable.

The usual problem is that the zipper head has pulled off one side of the teeth and ceased to connect the gap. Well, all is not lost. Turn the pants inside out and look at the lower end of the fastening. You’ll probably see two, three, or four metal prongs or a metal rectangle (depending on which side the fitting was put in from). This is the stop, which keeps the head of the zipper from, scooting off the track at the bottom.

With pliers (needle-nosed are the easiest to use), pry open the prongs and remove the stop. Don’t lose it! There may be stitching across the zipper tapes instead of, or in addition to, the metal barrier. In that case, take out enough of the thread to free the inside and lower edges of the cloth tabs.

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